Valea lui Mihai
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1918) with the name of Érmihályfalva
in the Hajdú-Bihar megye (county), Körösvidék járás (district). After the Treaty of Trianon, Érmihályfalva became part of Romania with the name of Valea lui Mihai in the Hajdú-Bihor comitat (county), Crisana provincie (province) of Western Transylvania.

Other spellings/names for Valea lui Mihai are Mihaifalău and Valea lui. In Yiddish, Valea lui Mihai was known as Mihályfalva
.

Valea lui Mihai is located in west Transylvania, about 6 miles from the Hungarian border and about 12 miles W of Vámospércs, Hungary.

Jews from Galicia settled in Érmihályfalva (Valea lui Mihai) around 1780 and engaged in agriculture and commerce. Érmihályfalva was the center of Jewish life for the surrounding towns. In the beginning of the 19th century, around 1820, land was purchased for the synagogue and construction was started. On documents that have been found, they show the building was constructed in a short period of time and the first leaders were Sandor ROSENBERG, Jakab ROSENFELD, Izsak FELDMAN and Mendel OSTREICHER. In 1822, the first woman's Chevra Kadisha group was established and, in 1834, Solomon MINSZENTI was elected the first rabbi.

In 1873, an elementary school with two teachers and 102 students was opened and attended by most of the children in the community. At the same time, a yeshiva was established with land donated by Lajos DANCZINGER, while Beno GLUCK donated the building materials. Talmud study was established at the suggestion of Jeno ZELLER.

In 1877, the population of Valea lui Mihai was 3,901 made up of Hungarians, Rusyns and Jews and comprised the following religions: Roman Catholic (417); Greek Orthodox (407); Greek Catholic (1); Agnostic (18); Reformed (2,566), and Jewish (492).

In 1878, thirty Hasidic rabbis convened in Valea lui Mihai to protest against the critical attitude of the Orthodox rabbis in Budapest. In the late 19th century, Anschel BAK opened a Hebrew printing press.

In World War I, 15 Jewish men from Érmihályfalva died a heroic death. By 1920, the community was too large for its present synagogue, so the community the leader, President DANCZINGER, decided to build a new synagogue through the levying of an extra payment tax. The Jews of Valea lui Mihai were mainly business people employed in commerce and as professionals. By trade, there were three wholesalers, 105 businessmen, seven factory owners, 55 craftsman, four farm owners, three lawyers, one physician, two general proprietors, two office workers, four private offices, one teacher, eleven self-employed, 21 general laborers, eleven miscellaneous and 72 unemployed.

The Jewish population of Valea lui Mihai, in 1930, was approximately 300 Jewish families or 1,430 Jewish inhabitants (20% of the total). In the inter-war period, Jews were leaders in the local industries employing hundreds of workers, and the better situated Jews contributed greatly to the industrial development of Valea lui Mihai, such as the Beno GLUCK mill, the Marton FREUND textile factory, the two window shade factories of WURDINGER-HOFFMANN and DETCH-FOLMANN and the cement-concrete and brick factory of Jeno KATZ. Furthermore, many people from Valea lui Mihai worked on farms, such as Karoly FELMANN, who owned 300 hectares, Zoltan BENEDEK, who owned 400 hectares, and Henrick ROSENFELD, who owned 480 hectares.

Economic life, at this time, was difficult and the local Jewish community shouldered the Valea lui Mihai community's yearly expenses of 1,400,000 lei (Rumanian currency). The neighboring towns of Ersemjen, Erselind, Galospetri, Vasad, Otomany, Szalacs, Piskolt, Ertarcsa and Erkeseru also contributed in covering such a huge annual expense. Without their help, the taxpayer's burden would have been enormous.

Zionist activity began, in the 1930's, with the establishment of youth groups. Valea lui Mihai was the site of the Ha-No'ar ha-Tziyyoni national convention.

In the summer of 1941, ten families were expelled across the border into Ukraine and murdered in Kamets-Podolski. In May 1944, the Jewish community was transferred to the Oradea ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz. After the war some survivors returned, but soon left.

Today, Valea lui Mihai is a large town of over 13,000 inhabitants. A number of Hungarians, Romanians, Roma and over twenty other nationalities live there. A great number of the Jews of Valea lui Mihai were murdered in the Holocaust. Only three elderly Jews live there today (2009).

Source (portions):The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001), pp. 1372-73.